Budget Travel to cease trading

spadder

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/1125/breaking55.htm

Sad to see another formally successful Irish company gone. I read on Motors forum that E.P. Mooney are gone into liquidation too.
Bad day for job losses

pokerface_me

Yep real black day on the jobs front, 2 very local employers gone and plenty of people have just lost there jobs, really puts yesterday in perspective imo.

ghosttown

Bad news all round, one month to Christmas. Have Bro-in-law in another main dealer in Dublin, reckons there's more to come.

Davexirl

My mam and dad have a holiday booked to go out with them on teh 5th of December so not good news at all. They paid by Credit Card so I am sure they will get a full refund.

spadder

Davexirl wrote: »

My mam and dad have a holiday booked to go out with them on teh 5th of December so not good news at all. They paid by Credit Card so I am sure they will get a full refund.

"A helpline has been established at Budget Travel to deal with queries from customers concerned about their bookings. The number for the helpline is 01 6613122."

In fariness to them, it seems they are trying to sort everyone out before they turn off the lights.

super_furry

Terrible to see so many people lose their jobs but I think, to a certain extent, the advent of internet bookings and people making their own arrangements, made this innevitable.

Davexirl

spadder wrote: »

"A helpline has been established at Budget Travel to deal with queries from customers concerned about their bookings. The number for the helpline is 01 6613122."

In fariness to them, it seems they are trying to sort everyone out before they turn off the lights.

Cheers

My mam tried ringing that number already and a message saying office now closed. Lots of calls probably going in.

jenzz

Its so sad - The loss of jobs, the loss of another homegrown company - In Bray alone we lost Falcon, Travelcare & now Budget. Its so sad as all these girls were friends in all the different travel agencies - all went through college together & are all now redundant. Then EP Mooney... Wheres it all going to end! Why is no one bailing the likes of these companies out? Each job lost is another cost to the state or have they yet to realise this ?

aassddff

Should be OK for the refund. Terrible news for the people who work there and it does put yesterday's strike in prospective

ei.sdraob

maybe they should all go on strike and demand no paycuts


oh wait wrong thread

jon1981

jenzz wrote: »

Its so sad - The loss of jobs, the loss of another homegrown company - In Bray alone we lost Falcon, Travelcare & now Budget. Its so sad as all these girls were friends in all the different travel agencies - all went through college together & are all now redundant. Then EP Mooney... Wheres it all going to end! Why is no one bailing the likes of these companies out? Each job lost is another cost to the state or have they yet to realise this ?

Sorry but why would you want to bail out a travel agency when its a dying industry? the writing has been on the walls for years.. the online booking and people doing it themselves has just been growing and growing

jenzz

jon1981 wrote: »

Sorry but why would you want to bail out a travel agency when its a dying industry? the writing has been on the walls for years.. the online booking and people doing it themselves has just been growing and growing

I want to bail out JOBS! More people on the dole, more cost to the state, more people applying for the same job, longer it takes to find a job

tunney

ei.sdraob wrote: »

maybe they should all go on strike and demand no paycuts


oh wait wrong thread

It's all a lie. Sure everyone knows that 75% of the private sector have been unaffected by the recession.

jon1981

jenzz wrote: »

I want to bail out JOBS! More people on the dole, more cost to the state, more people applying for the same job, longer it takes to find a job

yes but why bail out industries that are dying due to natural causes?!

i do agree they (government) need to create jobs but this needs to be done by creating a sustainable industry...not shelf life industries like motor, travel and construction!

people need to face reality that certain industries are just gone and cannot be revived!

johnny_adidas

jon1981 wrote: »

yes but why bail out industries that are dying due to natural causes?!

i do agree they (government) need to create jobs but this needs to be done by creating a sustainable industry...not shelf life industries like motor, travel and construction!

people need to face reality that certain industries are just gone and cannot be revived!

yes lets not innovate in these industries, god knows they were only here during the boom times.
lets just sit here, never build another thing, upgrade/service another car or go on holiday :rolleyes:

Idbatterim

Id say there will be alot more businesses closing after the budget and christmas! there are going to be so many unemployed here I can see mass emigration! Whats going to get us out of this?! Where is the light at the end of the tunnel?!

jon1981

johnny_adidas wrote: »

yes lets not innovate in these industries, god knows they were only here during the boom times.
lets just sit here, never build another thing, upgrade/service another car or go on holiday :rolleyes:

i never said build another thing... lets face it construction as we knew it will never get back to way it was... i agree hospitals, energy plants need to be built...propose to me how you would bail out the travel industry?

ei.sdraob

jon1981 wrote: »

.propose to me how you would bail out the travel industry?

pay everyone in the state to be flown to canaries

4.3 million * 100 euro flight = 430 million euro

thats a whooping 1/125th the price of a NAMA

jon1981

ei.sdraob wrote: »

pay everyone in the state to be flown to canaries

4.3 million * 100 euro flight = 430 million euro

thats a whooping 1/125th the price of a NAMA

sure let the PS strike for another 4.5 days you have that same amount in the bag

ei.sdraob

jon1981 wrote: »

sure let the PS strike for another 4.5 days you have that same amount in the bag

Lanzarote here we come

johnny_adidas

jon1981 wrote: »

i never said build another thing... lets face it construction as we knew it will never get back to way it was... i agree hospitals, energy plants need to be built...propose to me how you would bail out the travel industry?

im not suggesting any industry be bailed out but took issue with your sweeping statement that some industries are "gone and cannot be revived!"

if travel companies in ireland got rid of their overheads from renting office space and put the money into researching cheaper options, bargaining agressively with travel providers instead of relying on last years prices for example (possibly with people in call centres which no doubt they already have i guess) building better websites. god knows it doesnt bother me if a travel brochure comes in the post rather than someone being paid to hand it to me over a counter.

only last week i booked a skiing holiday and it was 1 person cheaper to book online with a (albeit uk based) travel agent than in a local agent. I prob could've gotten it even cheaper booking myself as i usually do but this travel agent had the resort we wanted exclusively (another way of cutting down on DIY bookings helping their industry)

jon1981

johnny_adidas wrote: »

im not suggesting any industry be bailed out but took issue with your sweeping statement that some industries are "gone and cannot be revived!"

if travel companies in ireland got rid of their overheads from renting office space and put the money into researching cheaper options, bargaining agressively with travel providers instead of relying on last years prices for example (possibly with people in call centres which no doubt they already have i guess) building better websites. god knows it doesnt bother me if a travel brochure comes in the post rather than someone being paid to hand it to me over a counter.

only last week i booked a skiing holiday and it was 1 person cheaper to book online with a (albeit uk based) travel agent than in a local agent. I prob could've gotten it even cheaper booking myself as i usually do but this travel agent had the resort we wanted exclusively (another way of cutting down on DIY bookings helping their industry)

but i still don't see how this really helps the industry...its been moving towards web based offerings for years... what you have said there has not supported the argument for requiring a physical presence in Ireland.

johnny_adidas

I dont think a few lines from me on a thread are going to give any real pointers to helping the travel industry. it so wide based apart from an agent who is basically organising a trip for you - transport, accommodation, food, leisure activities.
People are always going to cut out the middle man when times get harder.

I personally dont believe a travel agent needs a physical presence so if we get back to the Budget travel closing, it seems obvious to me that they didnt make the changes when needed to save people's jobs by changing how they did their work

Again my original gripe is that its a big jump to lump in construction and motor industries as dead and buried

Speedy2009

johnny_adidas wrote: »

im not suggesting any industry be bailed out but took issue with your sweeping statement that some industries are "gone and cannot be revived!"

if travel companies in ireland got rid of their overheads from renting office space and put the money into researching cheaper options, bargaining agressively with travel providers instead of relying on last years prices for example (possibly with people in call centres which no doubt they already have i guess) building better websites. god knows it doesnt bother me if a travel brochure comes in the post rather than someone being paid to hand it to me over a counter.

only last week i booked a skiing holiday and it was 1 person cheaper to book online with a (albeit uk based) travel agent than in a local agent. I prob could've gotten it even cheaper booking myself as i usually do but this travel agent had the resort we wanted exclusively (another way of cutting down on DIY bookings helping their industry)

try reading whats in the irish times as to why the company ACTUALLY closed - they had already cut back on most of their shops, just leaving the bare minimum around the country and online sales made up most of their business, so you cant say that its the travel industry with the problem, companies have changed to meet market efficencies and demands.
What is really affecting the company is the fact that they cannot guarantee a licence to operate next year(with this they could continue trading and restructure further), intercompany loans being called in, decrease in sales further than expected and having an Icelandic parent company!!

super_furry

johnny_adidas wrote: »

yes lets not innovate in these industries, god knows they were only here during the boom times.
lets just sit here, never build another thing, upgrade/service another car or go on holiday :rolleyes:

They should have been innovating themselves. Their business model is obsolete and it's evolve or die.

Bandit12

Sad to hear this. I'd say there is a hell of a lot of bad news coming down the tracks for the retail industry after Xmas.

ei.sdraob

this has more to do with information revolution than recession

the writing on the wall was there for years


travel agents are nothing more than information brokers, with advent of internet and better information gathering tools, theres less need for them

same will happen to other information broker jobs btw



on bright side i got into IT and networks so there be always need for someone to engineer things

its kinda like the story of what happens when robots replace people in manufacturing

spadder

There is still a market for travel agents online or high street, sometimes it's just handy to book a package, arrive, get on a coach and be delivered to your hotel, no messing around with car hire firms, and hotel check-in decent bagage allowance and usually good service.

Fratton Fred

I disagree, I think people still do use travel agents, they just don't use the shops anymore and book on line. Obviously they aren't using them enough though.

This could mean a massive reduction in choice for flights out of Dublin, for example, the only direct flights to Sharm are on charter flights. If no one is going with budget, does that mean Falcon will also cut that holiday from irish brochures, meaning that cheap holidays to Egypt are no longer available?

Shame about EP Mooney as well, with the number of car dealers closed lately, the choice available when buying a car is greatly reduced. this can only be bad news for consumers.

ei.sdraob

spadder wrote: »

There is still a market for travel agents online or high street, sometimes it's just handy to book a package, arrive, get on a coach and be delivered to your hotel, no messing around with car hire firms, and hotel check-in decent bagage allowance and usually good service.

all of that can be replaced by good databases, nice interface and algorithms

already many sites just do that

and save you money by comparing alot of combinations

this is what computers excel at


they are middlemen in the chain

thebman

I've never bought a package holiday or anything like it.

Book the hotel online and get the flights from Ryanair. Look into things to do myself and with friends an go.

Cheap and easy. I think this was inevitable but do feel sorry so many are out of jobs. I'm sure they'll get work elsewhere eventually though if things ever pick up

Dannyboy83

Everyone is talking about business models and IT etc.
None of that is new.

The change here is money.
Many people have none and those who have, are terrified to spend it.

We are going to see a lot more of this in the next 12 months unfortunately.


p.s. I used budget travel in 2008 and I had planned to use them this year but the GF lost her job, I cannot see myself taking a holiday for a while

ntlbell

Dannyboy83 wrote: »

Everyone is talking about business models and IT etc.
None of that is new.

The change here is money.
Many people have none and those who have, are terrified to spend it.

We are going to see a lot more of this in the next 12 months unfortunately.


p.s. I used budget travel in 2008 and I had planned to use them this year but the GF lost her job, I cannot see myself taking a holiday for a while

I think i only went on one holiday with them

the prices were relativley cheap

but what i did notice is the prices didn't seem to drop much during the problems

they didn't seem to drive any deals like bring the kids for free etc

like a lot of buisness's that have gone out of buisness one would have to question are they really doing enough to drive in the buisness?

i dont think so

ronbyrne2005

ei.sdraob wrote: »

this has more to do with information revolution than recession

the writing on the wall was there for years


travel agents are nothing more than information brokers, with advent of internet and better information gathering tools, theres less need for them

same will happen to other information broker jobs btw



on bright side i got into IT and networks so there be always need for someone to engineer things

its kinda like the story of what happens when robots replace people in manufacturing

Yeah remotely from Beijing or Bangalore in many cases! Sort of job that requires a presence in this country is best to have.

artful_codger

ah well, at least there won't be a bunch of undignified scroungers camping outside their Baggot St. branch over xmas for a free holiday.

thebman

ronbyrne2005 wrote: »

Yeah remotely from Beijing or Bangalore in many cases! Sort of job that requires a presence in this country is best to have.

Generally only tech support gets outsourced from what I can see from working in IT.

The only places that outsource development work are in trouble or usually bring it back 5 years later when they realise what they've done. You can't do requirements gathering from a foreign country and unless you have everything setup perfect, requirements will get lost in translation or programmers will give their interpretation of requirements especially if management/clients are in one country and the developers another.

Networking is in house so can't be outsourced.

ei.sdraob

ronbyrne2005 wrote: »

Yeah remotely from Beijing or Bangalore in many cases! Sort of job that requires a presence in this country is best to have.

outsourcing is a problem of course but mostly for the repetitive (boring) lower paid tasks (which would eventually be replaced by computers themselves)

thats the reality in ICT sector, constant deflation! every year computers & networks get faster and cheaper, new technologies emerge

its a real wild west were your constantly need to learn to stay in the game

i personally have to compete with millions of people from China and India every single day to earn a cent

do people in the public sector or some private sector (soon to be extinct) jobs face this competition?

nope


its a tough world out there and it sure as hell aint fair, but you either go with the flow or sink trying to moan about it